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Sir John Chilcot is facing renewed pressure over his inquiry into the Iraq war following the emergence of a leaked White House memo that appears to prove Tony Blair backed military action a year before seeking a vote in parliament.

It is proving quite a month for chancellors and shadow chancellors. The symmetry with which Geoffrey Howe, chancellor 1979-83, followed Denis Healey, chancellor 1974-79, both in life and in death (they died within a week of each other) was remarkable.

The prime minister has announced that the government is to spend millions on funding anti-extremism projects in communities and tackling online attempts to radicalise the vulnerable, in a sign of growing concern at the threat from domestic terrorism.

The majority of Conservative backbenchers will remain unconvinced even if David Cameron succeeds in renegotiating the terms of the UK’s membership of the European Union, the chairman of the foreign affairs select committee has said.

Nicola Sturgeon is to commit the Scottish National party to voting against any military intervention by the UK in Syria at Westminster in a move that piles further pressure on Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, which is deeply divided over the issue.

David Cameron bowed to pressure from other EU governments on Thursday and pledged to put his shopping list of demands for his in/out EU referendum on paper within weeks after previously declining to do so.

Modern-day politicians would not be strong enough to win the miners’ strike, but they would have been better at spinning it to the media than Margaret Thatcher was, Thatcher’s authorised biographer has said in an interview with George Osborne.

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Jeremy Corbyn is expected to promise that a Labour government would tackle discrimination by forcing all but the smallest firms to carry out compulsory pay audits of their staff, as he launches his campaign for re-election as party leader on Thursday.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has backed Theresa May’s decision to wait until next year before starting the formal process of leaving the EU, despite pressure from others in Europe for a speedier exit.

Boris Johnson was embarrassingly forced on to the back foot during his first London press conference as foreign secretary on Tuesday as he was repeatedly pressed to explain his past “outright lies” and insults about world leaders, including describing the US president as part-Kenyan and hypocritical.